Photographer's Forum / Lee White

About Photographer's Forum / Lee White

Lee White has been a commercial photographer for over 30 years and has been shooting video since 2000, working on five continents. He has presented his Video Secrets for Photographers events throughout the US and in China. He is the National Vice President of American Photographic Artists (APA). Having taught video at four colleges, he is presently a photography instructor at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California.

My adventure into video started in the early 2000s, when non-linear editing programs like Final Cut Pro and Avid became available for desktop computers. Much of the work was still standard definition, and I was using the Sony PD150 — an affordable mini tape camera for documentary projects. (Important projects were still shot on expensive, professional full-size shoulder video cameras.) The PD150 had tiny chips that were not especially light-sensitive and created a “PD150 look” of deep depth of field — not very cinematic. In other words, everything was in focus all the time. The high compression of the mini tape cameras left something to be desired in image quality as well.